I grew up playing Final Fantasy Tactics. It was one of the favorite games of my childhood. We used to rent Playstation games from the local Blockbuster (wow, blast from the past right?). I rented it and re-rented it so many times, my mom in exasperation finally just got it for me (I don't remember how much it cost, probably $30 at the local Toys R' Us).
For some reason I never got into Fire Emblem, though I had a cousin who did, and I had heard it was really good. But anyway, I've been wanting to scratch that FFT itch for a very long time. And surprisingly, in 15+ years, nobody has been able to do it for me. FFT was such a unique game. To my knowledge it was the first blend of RPG and Tabletop tactics
in digital format ever made. It was a masterpiece.
And yet, so many years later, any games which even remotely symbolize it are either locked behind massive paywalls, badly designed, abandonware, or any other combination of problems which has led to a severe disappoint for a lot of people I think.
Well anyway, Duelyst is the closest I've come to finding that game. Apparently, when it was announced as Kickstarter game, it was supposed to be a tabletop tactics type game, with all the content unlocked after purchase. Yet somehow, through a series of design decisions that I wasn't there for, it kind of became a card game with turn-based tactical elements.
This is a bit of a tl;dr, so you can skip it if you want but this is important. It's from a post on the Duelyst subreddit yesterday called
"Broken promises and loss of identity: current Duelyst compared to its original Kickstarter":
Spoiler for Hiden:
The "Early Beginnings" section might reveal the secret: Duelyst started as a tactical miniature game played on a board with dice. If you've played D&D or another pen and paper RPG, you know what we're talking about: during the combat phases (or "random encounters", if you will) you move your hero on a board and fight monsters.
From the descriptions and the photos included, it looks like they stripped the roleplay bit and only focused on a hero units supported by other units, refining the gameplay to streamline it and keep it fast and to the point. Notice in the photos how no one is holding cards, and it seems like you would have been able to build your squad on the spot without having to "draw" the units.
Let's keep reading the list of features: "Our goal is to vigilantly remove every extraneous feature from the game to focus on its heart and soul: squad-based tactical combat". This confirms what explained above: by extraneous features, they probably mean the roleplay and collecting loot bit. Just build your army and go to battle, and the way you build your army is also explained." Business Model: Every battle unit and spell is earned by spending time playing the game. As a result, this is NOT pay-to-win!"
While collecting money for boosters can certainly be done by just playing, and the gold and drop rates are generous, notice how nowhere it mentions the fact that the units and spells are on cards that you have to get by opening packs at random. In fact, some comments from backers lament the fact that Duelyst wasn't even supposed to be a free to play game, but rather a retail-priced game with all units unlocked through progression. So what about the game itself?
"Skill-Based Tactical Combat: The emphasis is on unit positioning, understanding your squad's abilities, anticipating your opponent's capabilities, and maintaining board control. At it's core, it's a tactical tabletop board game without all the manual math calculations."
Duelyst started as skirmish combat game similar to tabletop tactical combat. Looking at the preview gifs in the page shows it clearly: the sheer amount of units on the board could probably never be accomplished in the current version of the game, and there are AoE spells that target clusters of enemies, or spells that go around said enemies to target the general directly instead. All this showcases handling multiple units at the time and taking advantage of positioning.
The word "card" isn't used once in the entire page. Or "deck", for that matter. The word "ccg" is used once, in reference to the resource pool (mana) and not to describe the gameplay.
So what's so wrong about card games? Nothing, and they can be loads of fun. And pre-patch Duelyst somehow found a way to incorporate some elements of card games into its core tactical miniature gameplay. Having your units in a deck and drawing them made it more unpredictable compared to a simple "place the units from the start", but the draw 2 replace function mitigated said unpredictability to make it more consistent with your gameplan and less reliant on topdeck RNG.
Making the game free to play and using boosters to get units rather than going full price retail also made sense in a competitive market where a lot of indie games struggle to be recognized. As a business model it was probably more sustainable, and it was not as aggressive for the consumer as many other free to play games. And the randomness of opening packs is undeniably appealing.
As an hybrid of tactical squad gameplay and ccg elements, Duelyst just hit the right spot in the middle, using elements of both to deliver an extremely unique game. Sure, there were some balance problems in overtuned or underwhelming cards, but nothing fundamentally broken.
But something shifted from this original design, and gradually Duelyst lost its root of tactical squad game with some ccg elements to transition into a full-blown card game, except on a board.
Of course I didn't know about any of this until I read it. But basically, I think I would have liked Duelyst a lot more as it was originally designed to be, a Tabletop game with miniatures in digital format focusing purely on skill and tactics, and not the quality of a player's cards. It seems it copied the Hearthstone model, which from a business standpoint is probably extremely lucrative, but from a design standpoint...eh not so much. I still really like it, and I still think it's the best replacement for FFT I've discovered so far, but it's sad because I feel it could have been so much more.
